-Rachel-
Marco was still flirting with me. After all this time! I guess I should show him my book. I hadn't published it yet because I couldn't come up with a title, but it was basically the story of Tobias and I. How we'd fallen in love, even while he was a hawk, how the war had brought us together and how his death had affected me. I knew I could never love again, so I never dated. It wasn't like I didn't get offers, but I couldn't just dismiss Tobias' memory like that.
I was a little worried about this mission. Unlike the other animorphs, not everyone knew my face. I hadn't done all the interviews and such – I was detained at the time – so they'd just had pictures, like they had of Tobias. But that stuff might come out of this mission too, if it turned out well. The publicity was part of the reason I didn't know if I should publish my book. Then everyone would recognize me. I'd have to have bodyguards and stuff like the other animorphs. Well, first things first. The mission. This one would be the best ever, I hoped. Australia! I'd never been there before!
The mission went as planned. Marco and I sneaked in as cockroaches and listened to the plans. Yup, they were a Yeerk organization, alright. Overseen by Visser 9. And we'd thought the Yeerks were stuck back on their planet on the other side of the galaxy! So we found out what we needed to know, called in the military and the Andalites (to help from space) and took the Yeerks out. We won! What a rush! It was fun to have someone to celebrate with, even if it was only Marco.
The funniest thing happened, though. Marco and I became friends on that mission. I guess I would have considered him sort of a friend before, but we weren't really close. . I showed him my book and he read it. He told me he thought I should publish it. Marco actually came up with the title. I was thinking something along the lines of Beauty and the Beast, because the story was similar – a girl falling in love with a human trapped in the body of another species. Marco had said "How about 'Xena and the Hawk'?" I liked it.
When we got back to the States, my boss asked us if we'd be partners and continue the spy missions together. Marco said he was sick of Hollywood, so he sold his mansion and bought an apartment in New York, a few blocks from mine. We became secret agents - partners. We were famous now, after the spy mission in Australia, they asked us to do all kinds of TV shows and such. We just did a few interviews, but that was enough. Now I had those bodyguards I had been avoiding. Oh well, at least I was safe – when I was home, which wasn't often.
I decided to publish the book. More publicity came along with that, but oh well. I thought people should know my part of the story – Jake had published a book about the war, but mine was completely different. His story was more of a recap of the war. Mine was . . . a love story? More of a tragedy, I guess.
Marco and I worked together for a while, doing missions and such. We were getting really good after about a year of working together.
Missions had been slow for a little while, so I was home in New York when I got an invitation in the mail to a high school reunion. I called Marco and he'd gotten an invite too. We booked our flights and hotel together so we would have company on the trip and made plans with Cassie and Jake.
I called Cassie and made plans to go shopping before the reunion! It was just like old times - me dragging her through stores in the mall. She told me she'd broken up with her boyfriend, Ronnie. She said she still liked Jake, but assumed he'd moved on. I told her Marco had said Jake was still single, so I was determined to find her something to wear that would knock Jake's socks off!